US Repudiates Apo letter / article

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: US Repudiates Apo letter / article 8


By Ugur Akinci

Turkish Daily News
  _________________________________________________________________

WASHINGTON- A letter allegedly written by PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)
leader Abdullah "Apo" Ocalan and sent to the White House, as well as
several Congressional leaders, has been repudiated both by senior White
House and State Department officials. The letter, dated Oct. 13, was
published in Turkish newspapers and the Arabic daily Al Hayat a week ago. .

When asked for his reaction to the letter at a press briefing at the
Foreign Press Center, Ambassador Robert Pelletreau Jr., assistant secretary
of state for Near Eastern affairs, told Turkish journalists that: "We
consider the PKK to be a terrorist organization. And I think that's a
sufficient answer to (your) question.'

A White House official, who wished to remain anonymous, similarly told the
Turkish press that they had no information about the alleged letter from
Ocalan and there was no way they could act as an intermediary between the
PKK and Turkey as requested in the letter. The "PKK is a terrorist
organization.

If it has anything to settle, it should settle it with Turkey. Action
speaks louder than words. A cease-fire would benefit the PKK itself since
they are harming the Kurdish people," the official said.

In the said letter, its writer, who signed his name "Abdullah Ocalan," told
U.S. President Bill Clinton that the PKK was not in favor of a violent
solution at all. "Despite the continuing war, our party is ready for an
unconditional, peaceful solution to the Kurdish question... We are ready to
start a new unilateral cease-fire... We are open to a federal solution, one
that also prevails in the United States of America," the letter said.

Certain observers in Washington claim that, if President Demirel's visit to
the White House had not been cancelled, the surfacing of the letter would
have coincided with his visit.

That sort of "coincidence" fuels suspicions in Washington that the letter
might be nothing more than "a leak" designed to manipulate public opinion
at a time when the PKK is claimed by Turkish sources to be suffering
militarily. .
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 Parliamentary Justice Commission adopts amendment of Article 8

TDN Parliament Bureau
  _________________________________________________________________

ANKARA- The draft bill calling for the amendment of the controversial
Article 8 of the Anti-Terrorism Law, which bars freedom of expression, was
endorsed by the Parliamentary Justice Commission on Wednesday.

The Parliamentary Justice Commission passed the bill, prepared by the Tansu
Ciller-led minority government, at its afternoon session after a morning
session ended in deadlock.

Speaking at the commission's morning meeting, DYP Afyon Deputy Etem Kelekci
had described the bill as amounting to an "undeclared amnesty" and had said
he was completely against any legal amendment leading to prison sentences
being commuted to fines.

The most criticized part of the bill was the section calling for the
elimination of a clause which bans the spread of separatist propaganda,
whatever the means employed or whatever the purpose or thought behind it.

The draft bill calls for a one-year reduction in the existing minimum
two-year prison term for those convicted of spreading separatist
propaganda. It also proposes commuting prison terms of up to a year to
fines or even suspending such sentences.

A temporary article inserted in the draft bill allows courts, which have
already convicted defendants for violating the Anti-Terrorism Law, to
rehear cases and either commute their prison terms to fines or suspend
their sentences.

At the commission's morning meeting, the Motherland Party (ANAP) and the
Welfare Party (RP) members tried to obstruct the passage of the draft bill.

They claimed that according to the relevant provisions of parliamentary
bylaws, the justice commission was not authorized to convene. When this
objection was rejected, they called for the draft bill to be debated first
by the Parliamentary Constitutional Commission.

While Coskun Gokalp from the Republican People's Party (CHP) said he found
the bill positive although not satisfactory, Etem Kelekci, a DYP member of
the commission, said he could never accept allowing the spread of
separatist propaganda. Kelekci said he would accept the draft bill if some
changes, proposed by him, were adopted by the commission. Otherwise,
Kelekci said, he would vote against the draft bill. He stressed that the
section of the draft bill calling for fines or the suspension of sentences
should be completely deleted.

The ANAP members of the commission harshly opposed the proposed amendment
of the Anti-Terrorism Law, stressing that the indivisibility of the country
could not be given up just because the European Parliament wanted this.
_________________________________________________________________ end


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 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)